New Volume Calculator

04-05-2012, 02:02 AM

The new volume calculator is awesome!! Its a lot more accurate and takes in to account a persons age and fitness. To me that makes a more accurate calculator. A person also has to take into account the type of surf you ride. Living in Hawaii, I will always tend to get a board a little longer. Great job Firewire!!

Yeah it's a cool little tool.
I think it might need a few tweaks. Putting in my weight at 165lbs, average fitness and at inter/ad ability it's giving a min volume of 23l and a max of 28l.
I don't think there are WCT surfers at my weight riding 23l HPSBs let alone intermediate/advanced guys. I'd say it could do with adding a couple of litres in min and max in that case. Not sure if people are finding that right across the board or just in certain weight categories.

Just checked it on the intermediate and advanced optiosn for comparison and advanced is giving the same min 23l max 28l and intermediate is coming up at min 27l, max 34l.
It could be worth tweaking the inter/ad option to be the middle of those two which would be 25l - 30l which seems pretty reasonable.

I punch in 50 years old 190 pounds inter/adv, average fitness and it comes up with 38/48 liters.. Ive been riding 36.7L 6-4 Hell Fire and 35.5L 6-6 Quadra-5 narrowed and thinner) with the exception of the 6-4 Dom 40.6L which I wanted floatier for waist high waves... Hmmm, I might have to get the 6-5 Activator after all. Was thinking the 6-3 to get a tighter response on hollower waves. Sure wish they were in the shops now so I can group it... I am tossing around a 6-6 MB or a 6-3 /6-5 Activator..

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Not a fan of the new improved volume calculator. Punching in my info (intermediate/advanced, 50 years old, average fitness, 89 kg) the boards it puts me on have way too much volume. According to the new guidelines, the shortest Dominator I should now ride is now 6’4”. Shortest Hellfire 6’6”. Shortest HellRazor 6’11”. My current quiver, which I’m very happy with, is listed below. And based on the recommendations that were in place when I bought the Dominator and Hellfire, I could’ve gone the next size down in both.

Have the laws of physics changed recently or is the new calculator calibrated on the assumption that most guys are going to talk their fitness and ability up? Because that’s pretty much the only way for me to hit the (quite sound) recommendations I’ve had in the past.

man Captain you are WAY against it. This is like the 4th post today where you are getting on its case.

guys its not law. we have added variables to help people get guidance. its not meant to be the only thing worth thinking. You have to take into account past experiences.

The volume calculator was developed in house here and it follows a formula that seems to work well for a majority of the people we tested it with. Stoked on the feedback from everyone, but just keep in mind, it isn't and should be the only place to get help.

Thanks!

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If you look at the dates you'll find that was actually my very first post about the volume calculator, but if you read it after the other posts I can see why it rubbed you up the wrong way. I'm not trying to rag on it for the sake of ragging on it, but my experience is that it doesn't work as well for me as what FW had in place before.

In one of the subsequent posts I simply said that the buyers guide worked better for me, and the thread I started was for the purpose of a constructive discussion around whether putting some definitions in place might cause it to work better. Which some others seem to agree would make sense.